Quick project and studio SOS

That’s what I was in the mood for tonight, something I could start and finish in a matter of thirty minutes. I haven’t touched my kumihimo supplies in a good, long while, but I had a pattern I wanted to try out. I know where my marudai is, and the thread, and the weighted tamas, but this pattern called for rattail, and I knew I had two spools, but I didn’t have the faintest idea where they were! This sent me on a manhunt through my little studio, and as I’m hunting for the rattail, other things I haven’t seen in awhile pop into my head. The fishing swivels I bought for tablet weaving, where are they? I wouldn’t have thrown them out… Where are those extra little scissors I bought months ago; those would be perfect for the little box of tatting shuttles that go in my purse… And yes, that little green storage box I bought worked out perfectly for dragging my tatting around with me!

When your area is cluttered, it’s all the tiny things that vanish into the ether! Eventually I found the rattail, the scissors, the fishing swivels…and honestly, they were actually in places it was logical for them to be. Once upon a time, I really was organized. But over time, as my supplies and tools increased, but the space didn’t, my organization dropped off. As a matter of fact, I really haven’t spent much time in my studio in the last year. Go in, grab whatever I’m using, go work somewhere else. I’m going to have to choose one of several things to get the place in order again:

C. Get in there and clean, and add some more organizational tools. Pinterest is lovely for that.

I’m thinking C is really my only choice, because the first two don’t bear thinking about.

Anyway, I found the rattail, buried deep in one of the tubs of yarn. Woohoo!! I also re-discovered a ton of yarn I didn’t remember I had, and found space in the tubs for the yarn that had been in languishing in the bags I had originally brought it home in. Then, having made at least a small stride in the direction of cleaning up the room, I pulled out my square foam kumihimo plate and started cutting strands of rattail.

For larger kumihimo projects, I like to use the marudai and the tamas, but I knew this project wasn’t going to take long. Also, the marudai isn’t really portable when there’s a project on it. It’s too easy to mess up the order of the braid strands, because they aren’t anchored the way they are with the foam plate. Without a project on it, it’s perfectly portable!

Another thing I’d like to do is get my PIP to make me another couple of marudai. The one I currently have is really only for round braids. I can make flat ones on it, as long as they are narrow. I’d like to try wider ones, so I’d need a marudai with a square top and a rectangular opening. And my current marudai is short, so longer projects wind up needing to be folded up as they progress. I’d like a taller one. The designs for marudai are fairly simple; I’m pretty sure the PIP can handle the requests pretty easily.

An hour and change later, maybe two, I had the choker pictured above. It’s not done yet, as I need jewelry findings for the ends, but the main work is done, and I like it. And I’m thinking that I need to buy some more rattail. Right now, I only have two colors: silver and purple. I think I need a few more, maybe some red, golden yellow, and white. Oh, yeah, and a selection of jewelry findings.

See? There I go again, adding more stuff to a room that’s already overstuffed!!